Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-05-05
PRACTICAL JOKING,
Tho Gross Way In Which the Alleged
Humor of Englishmcn Manifests Itself.

PRACTICAL JOKING.
Tho Gross Way In Which the Allered
Humor of Englishmcn Manifests Itself.
The worst Of English humor is that
1t is so apt to take a practical form.
Practical joking is generally con-
sidered, except, indeed, by the I'M
fortunate victim, the cream of English
fun, and is tolerated in England to an
extent that seems to a foreigner in
credible. The abominable form Of
practical joking is undoubtedly the
hoax, and during the last few years
hoaxing seems to have been on the in
crease. 1t was only short while ago
that lively gentleman in one of the
London suburbs was fined five pounds
for sending a telegram to a
trends wife to say that that
friend had seriously injured himself by
burns and had gone to the hospital.
Never was penalty better deserved;
and the culprit's ardor for practical
joking will probably have cooled con-
siderably by this time. A still more
senseless and cruel hoax was perpe-
trated short time before, when man
was informed that Newcastle gentle
man whose life he had once saved had
left him an estate worth thousand a
year. Needless to state, the message
was untrue. A still grosser case was
the Liverpool hoax of last winter, when
an advertisement was inserted in the
papers for large number of working
men to help in preparing the Exhibi-
ton grounds, all candidates for en-
ployment to bring spades and pickaxes.
There were great number of men out
of work in the city: crowds of them
streamed out to the exhibition site,
many of them having purchased out of
the remnants of their savings, the re-
quired tools; and when, after weary
walk, they reached the ground, they
found the whole affair was a hoax.
Can senselessness and barbarity in a
so-called practical joke 60 much far
ther than this.
OF more harmless kind was the
Downing street hoax af last July, when
several furniture vans from different
firms arrived-so it was said-at Mr..
Gladstone's official residence shortly
after his resignation, to remove "old
collars, hats, coats, and similar ef-
fects;' such, any rate, was the object
named on the postcards they had re-
ceived.
1t is tolerably well known that for an
undergraduate to be abroad in the
evening without cap and gown is an
offense against the laws of his uni.
versity, and if detected in his trans
gression by the proctors, the offending
Cantab or Oxonian is invited to call on
the proctor next morning to make a
modest contribution to the university
finances. In case he does not respond
to the invitation with sufficient alacri.
ty, form is filled in requesting him tc
attend without delay. In 1884, at OK.
ford some evil-disposed person pur
Joined a number of these forms, filled
them in, and sent them to some sixty
or seventy Undergraduates; and thu
scene on the proctor's staircase mex
morning may be better imagined thar
described
But perhaps the most notable hoa,
of recent years occurred about two
years back, An American cotton plant
er in the Southern States had, it wa
reported, after years of fruitless at
tempts, succeeded in crossing the cot
ton plant and the okra, a species o
hemp. The result had exceeded all ex
pectations. The new plant bore onl,
one blossom, of large size, of fra
GRANGE similar to the magnolia-pinl
at first and gradually fading to white
When this fell off. its seed-vesse
swelled and swelled; till at last
when ripe, it burst and re
vealed large mass of cotton a
least two pounds in weight, quit
free from the troublesome seeds, whicl
which were at the bottom of the pod
The account was copied from one paper
into another; showers of letters cam
beseeching the lucky planter for few
seeds, and it was confidently Predicts
that the cotton industry would be revo
lutionized. The Standard and othe
English newspapers devoted leading
article to the new discovery. An
after all this discussion, it turned on
that the whole affair was the invention
of some waggish Southern editor at
loss for subject in the holiday season
Chambers Journal.
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